


Familial Ties

by Flantastic



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mentions of past child abuse, Traitor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 04:55:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12101166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flantastic/pseuds/Flantastic
Summary: When James is captured after going rogue there is just one thing he wants.To speak to Q.





	Familial Ties

**Author's Note:**

  * For [timetospy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/timetospy/gifts).



> Written as a prize for the 2017 007 Games. 
> 
> When I asked Timetospy what she fancied she said "I've been hankering for a Dark!James fic where he's been kind of a sleeper agent for Spectre all along?"
> 
> I hope this ticks your boxes my dear!

 

 

Six words.

Six simple words in an interdepartmental memo from Tanner is enough to send Q’s carefully constructed world tumbling down around his ears.

_ Bond’s been captured.  He’s in custody. _

Six words and Q is running for the bathroom, his hastily-eaten lunch suddenly feeling like a helium-filled ball of lead, if such an impossible thing could exist.  It presses against the back of his throat demanding exit.  He barely makes it to the toilet before he is vomiting.  Tea and egg sandwiches and a clementine all jumbled and foul.

It will be several months before he can stand the taste of citrus again.

 

_ ~00Q~ _

_ “The inevitability of time, don’t you think?  What do you see?” _

_ James said he saw a bloody big ship.  _

_ Q saw a tired face, craggy and battle worn and handsome, and the bluest eyes he’d ever seen. _

_ ~00Q~ _

 

Q strides down the corridor towards the maximum security wing in MI6’s Holding Facility in Liverton, Devon.  He is clutching his notepad to his chest.  The grip he has on his pen is sweaty, everything about him is sweaty.  He hasn’t felt this nervous since the day Silva’s explosion decimated half of Q Branch and he was abruptly promoted into taking control of what was left of it.  He holds his head high though.  He is being watched, scrutinised by the cameras that cover his every move and he refuses to show any fear.  He has been watched for months.  M knew about Q’s affair with James, everyone knew, and when James went rogue M wanted to know if Q would follow suit.

He didn’t.

He stayed at his post, didn’t object to the interrogations, allowed them to put cameras in his flat, monitoring software in his phone and laptops.  He was a model employee, vowing to notify M the moment his ex-lover tried to contact him.

He didn’t.

And now this.  A fumbled attempt to spring Blofeld from Belmarsh Prison resulting in James’s capture.  The facility James is being held at is in Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor.  He has been here for weeks, refusing to talk, refusing to eat, and saying the same thing over and over.

_ I want to see Q. _

 

_ ~00Q~ _

_ Q sat astride James, easing back, working his cock into his body.  He glanced down to see James looking up at him, adoration in his eyes. _

_ “I love you Thomas.” _

_ Q smiled, biting his lip. _

_ “That’s a coincidence.  I love you too.” _

_ James laughed and Q felt a wave of affection for the way the skin around his eyes crinkled as they began to move together. _

_ ~00Q~ _

 

The room that James is being held in is a cell but it has been kitted out as a mini hospital.  They have been force-feeding him nutrients for a week now.  He is on the bed dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants.  His wrists and ankles are tethered to the heavy duty bed frame with metal cuffs.  There is a drip attached to a picc line that has been inserted into his right arm. He is thin, so thin.  At the sound of the door opening he turns his head and smiles and there is a hideous doubling sensation for Q as he sees the blue eyes of the man he adored.  The man who was always so strong, so confident, but who now seems so diminished.

“Thomas.”

“No.  Not here.  Here I’m Q.”

He cringes at the way his voice sounds to his own ears.  It trembles.  It’s not the voice of the head of an MI6 department but one of a small child, scared and vulnerable.  He hates it but James simply nods.

“Of course Quartermaster.  My apologies.”

There is a single plastic chair.  Q places his notepad and pen on it so he can take off his coat.  He hangs it on the back of the chair and then sits down.  He opens the pad and clicks the end of his pen before looking up at James, ready to take notes.  James is watching him, a half-smile on his face.  Appraising.  Affectionate. It is a look that Q knows well.  Q waits but James doesn’t talk, he just watches.  Eventually Q clears his throat.

“What do you want Bond?”

James blinks as if the question surprises him but Q can’t imagine what he expected for him to say.

“I wanted to see you.”

“And now you see me.  Are you ready to start co-operating now?”

“No.”  The answer is quick and blunt.  Trying not to show the way his hands are shaking Q stands to leave.  They are done then.  He is about to pick up his coat when James adds; “I wanted to explain.”

Q pauses, his hand resting on the back of the chair.  He looks at the floor.

“You wanted to explain.  What?  You wanted to explain why you left?  Why you betrayed us?” He pauses.  He wants to add ‘ _ why you betrayed  _ _ me _ _?’  _ but it hurts too much to say the words.  Even now, even after all the months he has spent hating James for abandoning him, he realises with a sinking stomach that he still loves him.

His heart feels like it is being torn in two.

“Yes.”

Q can’t help himself, he glances up at the camera in the corner, suddenly terrified at what James might say.  To cover his confusion he sits again.

“Go on then.”  He says.  “Explain.”

 

_ ~00Q~ _

_ Q laid in bed, his head pillowed on James’s arm.  He awoke to soft kisses and James’s big calloused hand running down his naked side. _

_ “Wakey wakey darling.” _

_ Q yawned, stretching deliciously. _

_ “Are we late for something?  Do we need to get up?  Is there a national emergency I should know about?” _

_ “Nothing so dramatic.” James replied, rolling Q onto his back and cradling him in his arms.  “I just thought you might like to have a blowjob to go with the cup of tea I’ve just made you.” _

_ “Tea and blowjobs eh?  I’m a lucky boy.” _

_ James leant over him and kissed him deeply.  He tasted of mint toothpaste and his first sip of coffee.  Q reached up to wind his arms around James’s neck as James reached down to caress him through his pyjamas. _

_ “I’m luckier.” James replied before trailing kisses down Q’s throat. _

_ ~00Q~ _

 

“He’s my brother.” James begins. “Blofeld, I mean.”

Q waits, expecting more but James sits quietly, his piercing blue eyes watching his face intently.  When it becomes clear he’s not about to offer anything else Q snorts.

“And that’s it, is it?  You drag me all the way to the arse-end of nowhere to offer me a lame excuse…”

“It’s not an excuse.”  James cuts in softly.

“It’s not?”

“It’s an explanation.  I told you I wanted to explain and the biggest part of why I did what I did is because he’s my brother.”

“You were an only child James.”

“An only child who was taken in by Franz’s father, Hannes Oberhauser.”

“Oh let me guess.  Hannes Oberhauser was ten times the man your own father was and…”

“Hannes Oberhauser was a brute!”  James cut in angrily.  “A manipulative paedophile who had made Franz’s life a living hell for as long as he could remember!”

“Then why…?”

“Why did my parents stipulate I be put in his care if anything should happen to them?  Because he was cunning.  Charming and disarming when he needed to be.  He covered his tracks well.  His public face was one of respectability.  And because Franz was my best friend.  My parents must have thought going to live with him and his father, rather my overbearing bitch of an aunt, would have been ideal.”

Q shifts uncomfortably.

“Did he ever…?”

“Touch me?  No.  He tried a few times and each time Franz managed to stop him.  Put himself between the two of us and deflected his father’s attentions onto himself.”  James pauses for a moment, his gaze dropping from Q’s face to his lap as he seemed to lose himself in his memories.  When he speaks again he is subdued.  “I helped Franz to kill him.  I’ve killed so many for Queen and country but he was the first one I ever killed for myself.”

Q is stunned.  James is confessing to murder.  Giving MI6 all the ammunition they need to have him imprisoned for the rest of his life without making any embarrassing references to his past missions in court.

“Why are you telling me this?”  He asks.  “Why here?  Why now?”

“Because I want to put my life in your hands.  Because I need to show you how much you mean to me.  How much I trust you.  Because I wanted the opportunity to speak to you privately.”

“Privately?  You do know that’s a camera up on the wall there, don’t you?”

“And I know full well that you are more than capable of scrubbing the electronic records.”

Q shakes his head as realisation dawns.

“Your attempt to free Blofeld from Belmarsh.  You cocked it up deliberately didn’t you?  You  _ wanted _ to be captured.  Why?  Just so you could talk to me?  There are such things as telephones James.”

“Your phone was tapped.  Your emails were monitored.”

“You could have just spoken to me.”

“Where?”  James asks.  “Your flat was bugged.”

“On my way to work?  While I was in my local pub?”

“You were being followed, twenty-four seven.”

Q hesitates.  M didn’t say anything about a tail.  He’d agreed to all the measures that M had suggested readily. He’d thought…

The expression on James’s face softens in sympathy.

“Oh sweetheart.”  He sighs.  “I’m so sorry.  Did you really think that M still trusted you?”

 

_ ~00Q~ _

_ The lights on the Christmas tree twinkled as James lay with Q on the sofa.  It had been the best Christmas Day ever as far as Q was concerned.  James had only just been released after spending almost three weeks in Medical.  His body was a mass of bruising and bandaging still but he was finally on the mend.  Q’s fingers played over the edge of the dressing on James’s throat. _

_ “If I asked you to marry me, what would you say?” James asked quietly, not taking his eyes off the cheerily crackling fire in the hearth. _

_ Q wasn’t totally surprised by the question.  He’d spent every free hour possible sitting by James’s hospital bed side, leaving his lover in no confusion as to how deeply he cared for him.  He craned his neck and gently kissed the underside of James’s jaw. _

_ “I would say yes.  In a heartbeat.  You know I would.” _

_ James reached over and they intertwined their fingers. _

_ “Good.  That’s good.” _

_ ~00Q~ _

 

Q feels sick, much as he had the day he found out James had been captured, but he swallows down his nausea.

“I don’t supposed he does.”  He finally says.  “ And I suppose I have you to thank for that.”

James nods and then, unbelievably, he huffs out a laugh.

“I suppose you do.”

There is silence for a moment and then Q says:

“Did you kill Doctor Swann?”  James doesn’t answer straight away so Q adds; “Did you love her?”

James’s eyes flit up then.

“Yes.  And no.  Not at all.”

“Why?”

“I don’t really go in for blondes.”

“No, you twat.  Why did you kill her?”

“Oh I see.  Franz asked me to seduce her.  She had something that we wanted.  When she found out that I was using her she became a problem.”

“Something?”

“A notebook that had once belonged to her father.  He gave it to her.  It contained a cypher which, if cracked, would have revealed a good portion of our operations.  She tried to use it to blackmail Blofeld despite not knowing what it said.  She wanted to use it as life insurance.”

“Did it include the proof that you were a double agent?”

“Yes.”

Q shakes his head and the trembling in his hands starts again.

“We found her body.  She was floating in the Tiber with a broken neck.  You killed her in cold blood.”

“No.  It was self-defence.  She had a gun, tried to kill me when she realised how I’d used her.  How every interaction that I’d had with Blofeld, her father or anywhere that I might have been seen by her or recorded on camera… it had all been an act for her benefit.”

“You’re so good at that.”  Q says quietly.  “Using people.  I might have known.  Should have guessed.”

James tilts his head at that.

“Oh darling.  It was never that way with you.”

 

_ ~00Q~ _

_ “You little shit!” _

_ Q grunted and tried to push back against the hand which pressed him chest-down onto the worktop.  He shifted his hips and earned himself another slam of James’s as his lover fucked him. His eyes threatened to roll back at the delicious discomfort of being shagged senseless in his own kitchen. _

_ “You don’t ever go out into the field again!” James spat, the rough tempo of his hips punctuating his words.  “Not for me, not for any agent!” _

_ Q growled and tried to push back again and then whined when he realised he was completely pinned.  Austria had been a bad idea, Q had admitted as much, but James had been furious when he’d found out that Q had almost been taken.  He’d appeared in the dead of night, when Q had thought he was still in Blofeld’s hideout and overpowered him, tearing his pyjamas off him before bending him over and fucking him. _

_ James’s grip on the back of his neck intensified as he came and then the fury seemed to pass.  James curled over Q’s back, kissing down his spine as he reached around him to take him in hand. _

_ “I love you.” He murmured as he began to stroke.  He rested his forehead between Q’s shoulders. “My darling.  I’m sorry.  Did I hurt you?  I was so scared at the thought of you being taken… so angry that they might… I love you so much…” _

_ “I know.”  Q replied. _

_ ~00Q~ _

 

“You still haven’t told me why.”

“Why what?”

“I can understand that you regard him as a brother… kind of… but why work with him?  He was trying to control governments.  Topple leaders.  Cause conflict.  People died because of him.”

“Oh please,” For the first time James looks annoyed.  “Don’t be naïve Tom.” 

Q frowns and that makes James sigh.

“I’m sorry.  It’s just… it’s driving me crazy.  Seeing you sitting there… hating me.  I’m trying to explain…  Please.”  James pleads and he looks so heartbroken that it almost makes Q want to go to him and hold him. 

Almost. 

“He’s a clever man, he always has been, even as a boy… He has a singular vision.  He cannot be swayed, influenced.  He loves society but he loathes what he sees as the petty squabbling of world leaders, politicians.  Over the years he has set up a vast network of loyal followers.  Men and women like him… visionaries who want nothing more than world peace and prosperity.  Imagine.  A dictator springs up, starts committing genocide?  He could wipe him out.  A country experiences a drought?  He could compel the richest countries to feed their starving people.  There would be  _ no _ hunger,  _ no _ war…”

“Just a world looking to one leader?”

“He’s never wanted that.  He’s just a facilitator.  A guide.”

“How very noble.”  Q comments, his voice scornful.

“Please Tom…”

“What do you really want James?”

“I want you with me.  Come with me.  Work with me.  Make the world a better place with me.”

“Come with you?” Q asks, incredulous.  “You’re in a cell James.  And unless you’ve forgotten, your ‘brother’ tried to have me kidnapped.  Killed.”

“That was a misunderstanding.  He didn’t realise how much you meant to me…”

“Oh well, that’s alright!” Q snaps back.  “All is forgiven!  Where do I sign up?  I’d love to share your cell with you!”

James laughs at that, a humourless parody of the deep chuckle that Q knows him capable of.  That Q adores.

“I won’t be here much longer.  I have no reason to stay here any longer.  I got what I came for.

“And what was that exactly?

“This conversation with you.  ”

Q wants to argue, to remind James that he is in a maximum security prison but something stops him.  He realises that if anyone is capable of escaping, it is this man.  He pauses instead and then says;

“That was all you wanted?  I’ve only been here five minutes.”

“It was enough.”  James says.  “I just needed to tell you the truth and to tell you that I’ve loved you since the first moment that we met.”

“You don’t know the meaning of the word love.”  Q retorted.

“That might have been true once but that changed the moment I laid eyes on you.  What was it I said to you?   _ A bloody big ship.” _

Q can’t answer but he knows damn well that that’s what he said.  He knows it because that moment, and a dozen others like it, is ingrained in his memory.  The moment that he fell ridiculously in love with the agent.  He didn’t love the man then – that would come later – but it was a moment that was pregnant with possibility.  He wants to tell James he’s mistaken, that a man like him could never hope to know what real love is but he can’t because he’s terrified that it might just be true.  James really might still love him...”

Abruptly he stands, shaking his head as he grabs his coat.  He won’t fall for this.  He won’t.

“This is a trick.” He exclaims hotly, shifting his notepad in his hands.  He drops his pen and doesn’t bother to watch where it falls. He just needs to get out. He accidentally kicks the pen as he turns and it skitters under James’s bed.  “You just want me to come and work for your precious ‘brother’!  You… you used me and you’re still trying to use me and I won’t… I can’t…”  Words fail him as he realises something.  “I should never have come.  I was a fool.  Well no more.”  He raises his chin and stares at James defiantly.  “You can’t have me.  Not ever again.  You’re a fucking traitor.”

He strides for the door and bangs on it with the side of his fist.  As the guard on the other side opens it he glances back and James says;

“Please Tom.”

 

_ ~00Q~ _

_ James smoothed his hands up around Q’s back and tenderly kissed his belly.  He looked up resting his chin on his stomach to gaze at him adoringly. _

_ “You undo me.” He whispered. _

_ ~00Q~ _

 

Q sits in his office and stares at the postcard.  He picked it up from the mailbox in the foyer of his block of flats when he got home from work the night before.  He wonders if M has been told about it yet by the men tailing Q. He probably has but Q will make a point of presenting it to him anyway.  

Show him he can be trusted.

The picture on the card is of Rikkos Beach in Cyprus.  It is near Paphos and Q knows this because it is the beach his family visited regularly on summer holidays when he was a child.  He holds his head in his hand and tries to remember if he ever told James that.  He guesses that he must have because the message side of the card is blank save for the letter ‘J’.

James escaped from the Liverton facility mere hours after Q visited him there.  Blofeld from Belmarsh the following day.

Q tries to tell himself that the black ink on the card isn’t from the pen that he dropped in James’s cell.

 

_ ~00Q~ _

_ ‘Though you’ve played at love and lost and sorrow’s turned your heart to frost, I will melt your heart again…’ _

_ Q danced barefoot in front of the cooker, waiting for his pan of Bolognese sauce to come up to a simmer.  He’d always loved The Monkees, they reminded him of his late parents, and he loved it when his tablet randomly shuffled around to one of their songs.  He was humming merrily and then startled as James slipped his hands around him to draw him in close, pressing his chest to Q’s back. _

_ “You sound happy.”  He murmured, kissing Q’s neck softly. _

_ “I’ve got whole weekend off, I’m having Spag Bol for tea and you’re here with me.  What’s not to be happy about?” _

_ James huffed out a laugh and squeezed him playfully before swaying with him to the music. _

_ ~00Q~ _

 

Q wakes from a barely remembered nightmare. 

Memories of James and him together run through his head constantly while he is awake.  Overwhelming feelings of loss and loneliness invade his dreams when he sleeps.

He gets up and goes to the bathroom to piss.  There, stuck in the frame of the bathroom cabinet, is another postcard.  This one shows Rhodes Old Town.  Q must have put it there the night before. 

He came home to find it on his doormat.

There is no stamp on it.  No postmark.  Just his address and a ‘J’ written in handwriting so familiar it makes his heart ache.  Q didn’t know whether to feel angry or threatened so he decided to settle the matter by getting blind drunk.  James would have been so proud.

He shakes his head and tells himself that he doesn’t care what James would think but he suspects that he’s lying to himself.

 

_ ~00Q~ _

_ “Do you trust me?” _

_ “Always.” _

_ “Then you’re a fool.” _

_ “I know.” _

_ ~00Q~ _

 

The third postcard came from Venice.

Q wondered at himself.  Of all the places that he could have gone to meet up with James he chooses the city where Vesper died.

He is woozy when he arrives, the sedative he took to give him the courage to fly is still affecting him when he disembarks.  James is there at the airport to meet him though, just like Q knew he would be, even though he sent no word to say that he was coming.  He takes his bag and gently bundles him into a car every bit as sleek as the Astons that Q used to modify for him.  Q falls asleep and when he awakes they are at a beautiful villa on the shore of Lake Como.

James puts him to bed and Q can’t help himself, he pulls at James’s shirt, trying to get him to join him, even as he is expertly divested of his own clothes.  As soon as his head hits the pillow he is asleep again and when he wakes the next morning James is there with him.

They make love slowly, James treating him with such reverence, almost as if it is their first time all over again.

When they are both sated Q rests his head on James’s chest and looks out of the wide French doors at the clear blue sky.

“I’m glad you came.”  James eventually says.

“M sent me.” Q confesses.

“He wants you to spy on me.  On Blofeld’s operations.”

“Yes.”

“And what do you want?”

Q thinks about James’s question and flexes his fingers, brushing them over the scars on James’s chest.  Finally he answers.

“I want you.”

James kisses his forehead and Q’s eyes slide shut.

Hopefully it will be enough.

 

 

 


End file.
